Personal-Bests Set, Qualifying Standards Achieved as UMBC Track and Field Opens Indoor Season at Bison Opener

Dec 07, 2013

LEWISBUG, Pa. – After multiple Retriever athletes set personal-best times, distances, and heights, the women's 4x400 relay team capped the day with a win as the UMBC track and field team kicked off the indoor season at the Bison Opener, Saturday at Bucknell's Gerhard Fieldhouse.

In the final women's track event of the day, juniors Kalane' Abbey (Laurel, Md./Laurel) and Paulette Fogle (Washington, D.C./Bishop McNamara) combined with sophomore Marie Yuille (Bowie, Md.) and senior Deborah Adelola (Lanham, Md./Bladensburg) to best the field with a time of 3:57.46. UMBC teams also finished fourth and sixth in the competition.

For the men, sophomore Randolph Patrice (Baltimore, Md.) set a personal-best in the finals of 60m dash, placing third with a time of 6.98. The time is the tenth-best in program history and meets the standard for the IC4A meet to be held in Boston in early March.

In the high jump, senior Mo Drammeh (Frederick, Md./Thomas Johnson) recorded his best leap since his sophomore year as he cleared 2.01m (6'7.00") to finish second in the competition.

For the women, junior Alisha Beeman (Bridgeport, Conn./Bunnell/Hartford) earned a second-place finish in the high jump competition. Beeman cleared 1.65m (5'5.00") to jump up to fourth in the UMBC record book. She also finished seventh in the long jump as freshman Abigale Slonski (Griswold, Conn./Griswold) placed two spots ahead with a leap of 5.13m (16'10.75"), moving to seventh all-time.

Freshman Cindy Alms (Fulton, Md./Reservoir) got the day going for UMBC by winning 3,000m run in her first collegiate meet with a time of 10:58.37. Classmate Katelyn Callaghan (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East) finished two spots back in third by finishing in 11:19.64.

Junior Mary Katherine Kulp (Vestal, N.Y./Vestal) started her indoor season with a personal-best time of 5:14.07 in the mile to jump to eighth all-time in UMBC history.

Two Retrievers broke into the all-time top ten in the 60m hurdles as Fogle and freshman Madeline Entwistle (Potomac, Md.) placed third and fifth, respectively. Fogle jumped to eighth all-time by finishing in 9.30 and Entwistle was just behind, crossing at 9:34 to tie for the ninth-fastest time at UMBC.

In the 60m dash, sophomore D'Nique Phillip (Elkton, Md./North East), as well as freshmen Nailah Johnson (Capitol Heights, Md.) and Mercedes Tillman (Waldorf, Md./North Point) all advanced to the finals with times breaking the eight-second mark. Tillman posted a time of 7.96 in the prelims to crack the program's top-ten list while Johnson went 7.97.

Sophomore Caitlyn Davis (River Hill, Md.) recorded a career-best in the pole vault, clearing 3.00m (9'10.00") to move into a tie for fourth all-time.

In the shot put, sophomore Nneoma Edokobi (Rockville, Md./Richard Montgomery) recorded a career-best toss of 12.91m (42'4.25") to finish third in the event.

UMBC has the remainder of the 2013 calendar off from competition before opening 2014 at the Penn State Relays on Jan. 11.